Survival in White
by Engelsoft
Summary: A one-shot about survival in a frozen wasteland, inspired by a world I created when I got a little bored. Please enjoy and tell me what you think!


**Survival in White**

The girl's life began surrounded by white. Without name, without past, without identity, her life of survival began in the snow and ice. The girl would soon come to learn that the white was infinite; no matter how far she walked or how many horizons she crossed, the frozen land would remain the same.

She marked the place where she had first sprung into existence, tracing an X into the snow. But that X would soon be snowed over, and she'd have to find a more permanent means of marking it if she wanted to remember where it was. It was the only connection she had with who she was; the very centre of her world, it seemed.

Without any trees in sight, the girl knew she could not find wood for a fire or tools or a home. In this frozen wasteland, all she could see was ice and snow and the occasional peak of stone. But then...a rabbit!

The girl sprinted after it, but with no weapons, she could not hunt it. It fled beyond sight, leaving a trail of little pawprints in the snow. But the girl was not downcast, for as she crested a snowy hill, she saw a sparse clump of trees on the other side.

Three of them. The girl scanned every direction, looking as far as she could before each horizon was swallowed by fog, but these seemed to be the only trees for at least a while. Reasonably tall, snow-capped and with dark wood and leaves.

The girl walked down the other side of the hill, approaching the trees. It began to snow. She took shelter under one of them, placing a hand on its bark and looking towards its highest branches. The sun wasn't visible through the snow, but the girl knew night was fast approaching - the sky dimmed.

The temperature began to drop. The girl climbed onto the tree's lowest branch. She was lost now, she had already lost the X she'd traced, and her footprints would have been covered by the fresh snow that was falling.

Before the sky had completely blackened, the girl saw a figure. Elation sparked within her, and she leapt down from the tree, running through the snow. She called out to the person, but then she noticed another person on her far left...and another on her right. Just standing...in the falling snow and darkness. They were not people.

Zombie. Stray. Creeper. Spider. These were the names the girl came to know the monsters by. She fled from them, unable to fight, and climbed into her tree again. They followed, waiting below all through the night until the sun threw its first rays across the land, like merciful spears, and scorched many of the monsters to death. The flame was bright, unlike anything in this frozen wasteland, and the girl fell in love with the sun.

When the moon had fully set, the monsters stopped appearing, and the girl climbed down from the tree. The snowing had ceased, and the sunlight glistened on the fresh layer of white. The girl spent over a day felling one of the trees with a sharpened stone buried under the snow. She stripped the bark and whittled the wood into a long cane with a sharp point on one end. A weapon and a tool.

Night fell. She climbed the tree once more. And the monsters came once more. She had a weapon now, but she was too scared to make a deliberate attack. Only in self-defence would she use it.

Sunlight returned; the monsters burnt to death and vanished in a cloud of smoke. Some left remains: bones, rancid flesh, arrows. The girl scavenged what was useful. She hunted rabbits with her new spear, gathering hide and meat which she had no choice but to eat raw.

She cleared an area of snow and planted saplings from the fallen tree. She used her spear to cut large chunks of ice and snow from the ground. The day was spent making the frame of an igloo.

The rabbits came, nibbling her saplings, and she managed to hunt a few. Thanking the sun for their lives and their sacrifice, she ate. She cleaned the bones and used the entrails for fishing bait. A modest hole in the ice yielded salmon and cod, as well as other pieces of treasure. Everything was a treasure in this world.

The fish was eaten raw since the girl had no means of making a fire to cook it, but at least now she had a stable food supply. She climbed her tree and picked the meat from the bony fish. The flesh was sweet; she was content.

The igloo was completed after a few more days of hard work. The girl sat inside as evening fell, drawing her knees up to her chest and carving more wooden tools through the night. She could hear monsters outside, but she was safe within her walls of ice and snow.

Carving...carving...but with fatigue to blame, the girl's hand slipped and she cut her hand with the knife. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to sting. But luckily, her work was finished. She set it aside and slept.

At morning, she scavenged the remains of the burnt monsters and thanked the sun. Her pickaxe of wood was now complete and underneath the snow she found stone and coal. The girl used some stone to make a furnace and stacked the rest into neat piles by her igloo. As she worked, she didn't notice the saplings springing up into mature trees, as if by magic.

Another night of work, then another dawn. Stepping outside into the crisp snow, the girl's breath misted around her in awe as she saw the trees towering above her, now fully grown. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and looked again, but they were no illusion.

Touching one's smooth trunk to make sure it was real, the girl retrieved her axe from the igloo and chopped it down. She gathered the wood, giving thanks, and re-planted the saplings. Maybe this was a gift - in return for her planting and nurturing life-sustaining greenery, the sun of this land would make the trees grow incredibly fast.

The girl killed her first monster that night. A zombie, with greenish flesh and empty eyes. She speared it from a distance, imagining it as a large rabbit to calm her nerves and focus her mind, and the sharp point hit its mark. The spear streaked through the frozen air and embedded in the zombie's undead heart. The creature vanished with a puff of death-smoke.

The girl saw that the zombie had dropped something upon dying. Bright. Even in the darkness, she saw the object was intense orange, like the flame of the sun. A carrot. The girl would save it, plant it somewhere away from the cold so it could bear even more food.

Countless days passed, and the girl continued her survival. Fish and rabbits were caught, crops grown, wood carved, minerals mined and monsters slain. The girl expanded her igloo, and so too expanded her skills.

She was fully-fledged now; not merely a survivor but instead thriving. She had all she needed and more. The first carrot she had planted had matured long ago, her self-made forest of trees was thick and lush, her rabbit farm was booming. Her armour caught the arrows of strays, and a tamed wolf always fought by her side.

She was one with the land, not overcoming it, but instead living with it. She knew every slope, every stone; the chill air flowed into her lungs, sustaining her, and misted outwards with each exhale. The cold had seeped into her bones and strengthened her. She knew the pattern of every snowflake that she caught on her tongue; saw the life of each being she killed as the arrow or spear hit its mark. She made offerings of fire to the sun, felt the land wake and sleep with each day and night that passed. Alone she was, but not lonely.

The girl had not only survived the White. She had become it.

_\- End of story -_


End file.
